Meditations for Entrepreneurs #32: Out of Your Control

“The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.”

— Marcus Aurelius

In business, we often place a lot of value on things that are actually outside of our control. 

No matter how hard we try, we can’t actually control how customers feel about us. 

We can’t actually control what our sales are going to be, or force people to buy. 

We can’t control what our team and partners feel about us. 

And we can’t control what our competitors are doing.

The good news is that once we accept what’s not under our control, we are free to just put our focus into the things we can: our own thoughts and actions.

And by focusing our energy on what we actually can control, we create better probabilities for the outcomes we want in the things we can’t.

My continuing series: quoting great thinkers who inspire me, then offering commentary on how it connects with the entrepreneurial game. I hope these meditations will help other entrepreneurs play the bigger game.